This story about the first black heavyweight boxing champion is broadly based on the life of Jack Johnson and gave James Earl Jones his first major starring film role. He plays Jack Jefferson who, in 1910, not only annoys the white establishment by becoming the champ, but rubs salt into the wound by having an affair with a white woman (Jane Alexander). It's a good story, even if it does hammer home its anti-racist message a little too heavily occasionally, and Jones is very impressive as Jefferson. A film documentary about the real Jack Johnson made a year later did show, though, that sticking closely to the facts of his life more faithfully would have made an even more interesting movie, even if the central character may not have been quite as sympathetic. The real Johnson was a showoff who liked gambling, fast women and fast cars...


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